in a "washington post" op-ed this morning. rice writes this, in recent weeks new lines of attack have been raised to mall line my character and my career even before i was nominated for any new position. a steady drip of manufactured charges presented a -- rice isn't going anywhere, and by hangeding this gracefully, she may re-emerge when another job comes up. which is not going to be america's top diplomat. >> did you want the job? >> i would have been very honored to serve in that job, just as i'm delighted to do what time doing. but yes, sure, how can you not want to, in my field, serve at the highest possible level? >> thursday night, on our nbc affiliate in sacramento, kcra, the president praised rice, but also seemed ready to move on. >> susan is going to continue to be an outstanding u.s. ambassador to the united nations. i hadn't made a decision about who would be my next secretary of state. there's no doubt that susan was qualified. there are other people who are qualified as well. >> the white house has made it clear